


112. (dis)engage

by fall_into_life



Series: 100 Prompts Table 30-B [12]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Jacques Schnee is his own content warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 17:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16791286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fall_into_life/pseuds/fall_into_life
Summary: Winter has long since learned how to disengage from her father. She's taught Weiss how to do so as well.





	112. (dis)engage

**Author's Note:**

> Jacques Schnee is an awful human being in this AU. Please take care of yourselves.

Winter has learned over the years that the cleanest way to cut her father's legs out from under him is simply to not engage.

His greatest interpersonal interest is, as Weiss once put it "petty displays of power". He will find a way to control any given situation, or a way to make someone regret taking it out of his control. They may have come to an understanding about what holiday plans Weiss and Winter will and will not tolerate, but even that was a result of years of fighting. His disproportionate responses for even routine inconveniences are exhausting and Winter prefers to avoid the tantrums when she can.

This is rarely helped by the simple fact that Whitley seems to have inherited this personality trait from him. Winter and Weiss will present a solid front on a matter, only for Whitley to undermine them and take their father's side on every issue, regardless of how small or meaningless. He has adopted an us vs them mentality where he and Jacques are on one side and she and Weiss are on the other, and Winter has no idea how to bridge the gap.

"When are you going to get married, Winter?" Jacques demands, during one of Winter's rare visits to Atlas.

"When I find someone worthy of my time," Winter says, without looking up from her paper. She ignores the little voice at the back of her mind that says she already has; neither she nor Pyrrha are prepared to weather the full force of Jacques' attention.

"He had better be from a respectable family."

"She will be."

Jacques opens his mouth, surely to say something he feels is cutting, only to close it with a glance at Whitley. 

Winter had thought, once, that the three of them would be able to bond over their father's shared disapproval concerning their potential romantic partners. In a strange twist of fate, all three of them are queer: Winter prefers women, Whitley men, and Weiss has no gender preference but refuses to limit herself to men to please their father. None of them have formally announced their preferences to their father, but after Weiss seducing the Mistrali diplomat's daughter, Whitley seducing his son, and Winter subsequently referring to all potential future partners as her _wife_ to support her siblings, it's come quite clear that none of them are going to lie back and think of the family on this matter. Winter suspects that Jacques would strongly prefer them all be heterosexual, but has realized that he'll simply alienate them all if he voices these concerns. He is a stubborn, manipulative abuser, but he isn't stupid, and he wants a legacy. If he attacks one of them for being queer, he attacks them all.

He turns to Weiss, an eyebrow raised.

"I haven't the time to concentrate on both my studies and potential partners," Weiss lies, as convincingly as if she didn't board the plane to Atlas with a mouth-shaped bruise on her collarbone and breathlessness threaded into her voice. She's gotten very good at that particular lie, likely because until recently, it wasn't one. Before Rose, she had no intention of finding a partner in Vale.

Jacques grunts, unable to find fault in that. He might say something when Weiss announces her plans to pursue her Master's degree - and the subsequent PhD - but for now, it serves his ambitions better for Weiss to become educated than for her to marry young. Her designs have been weathering extensive SDC testing, and none of his researchers have been able to find fault in them. As much as it disgusts Winter to do so, she agrees with Weiss' decision to present herself as more valuable as a researcher than a bride. Until Weiss has full access to her trust fund - and Winter is counting days until her sister turns twenty-five - they must keep up a pleasant fiction.

He doesn't say a word to Whitley. Winter resents this even as she knows she wouldn't wish that kind of attention on anyone, let alone her brother. She may not personally enjoy the way he's chosen to protect himself but she won't bedgruge it.

Winter and Weiss stay in Schnee Mansion for the requisite three days, then Winter flies back to her base and Weiss back to Vale. They manage to not engage their father on any serious topics, and Winter calls it a victory. 

She still sleeps for an entire day when she gets back, and spends much of the next catching up on reports and messaging Pyrrha, but she's long since learned that not all victories involve triumphant returns. Sometimes, victory is returning home at all.


End file.
